Early Season Avalanche Briefly Closes Loveland Pass

CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – Officials with the Colorado Department of Transportation closed Highway 6 over Loveland Pass for a short time on Friday morning after an early season avalanche.

The slide happened in the middle of the highly avalanche-prone area called the Seven Sisters on the Clear Creek County side of the pass.

Avalanche experts told CBS4 that with a relatively snowy October in the high country conditions were ripe for this to happen. There has been about a foot of snow in the area in the past few days.

CDOT crews were called in and did some avalanche blasting work after the slide.

There have been a few different snowstorms in the mountains over the past month, but when there are also periods where the temperatures warm up in between that creates a very weak base layer of snow. Officials say when winds like the area experienced Thursday night blow through that can overload the base layer.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center says the chutes in the Seven Sisters area are part of the most active “avalanche path” of any highway in the country.

(credit: CBS)

Five men were killed in an avalanche on Loveland Pass earlier this year. (Full Story)